Making Online Attestations

I use attestations to affirm that an individual has read an online posting or activity. This is similar to using a clip board with a sign in sheet for on-unit updates or a “read and sign,” except this is done electronically. Attestations can be easily made by using an online quiz maker or manager. I use the test template in my account with QUIA but I've also experimented with the quiz maker on ProProfs and Blackboard. By using an online quiz maker I can track who participated in the online activity and what unit they came from. The basic templates for most quiz makers are similar in structure. To create an online attestation by using a quiz maker, I do the following:

1.       Click on “Create a quiz”

2.       Name the quiz: For attestations I generally use the following "Attestation Form: Name of the online activity "*

3.        “Description”: Provide a brief instruction such as the following:

 Please indicate "True" or "False," attesting that you have completed reading the online activity. Enter your first and last name in the boxes provided below.

4.       Add one “True-False" question

5.       Enter the value for the one-question quiz at 100%

6.       Enter the following statement in the question box:

a.       I attest that I have fully reviewed the “Name of the Online activity”*

7.       Select “True” as the answer

8.       “Settings”

a.       Uncheck the options for” Question number” and “Point values”

9.       "Access"

a.       Logon required: with this option your student rosters should already be set up

b.      No logon required: no rosters required; however you will not be able to filter your participants by unit

10.   “Global settings”

a.       Enable the quiz

b.      Show all questions

c.       Anonymity: Require student names

d.      Feedback: Select no feedback

e.      Attempts permitted: Select “1”

f.        Security: Disable copy, paste, and printing

11.   Click “Done”

12.   The Attestation page will have a specific URL located in the address bar

a.       Copy the link

b.      Make the link available on the web page where the activity exists. I generally hyperlink an interactive button.

* In place of the words, “Name of the online activity,” add the actual name of the activity.
If your staff does not have access to the internet request by-passing the proxy from your IT department for the URL. By requesting the bypass, staff can directly access the attestation. 

When Real Life Collides with Social Media

I have always considered myself to be good at multi-tasking.  Through the years I've managed my home, raised a family while being a working mom, made time to see friends, prepared home-cooked meals,  and even fast-tracked my MSN degree. I also found time to go to go on dates with my husband, work on hobbies, and even volunteer for professional organizations. Over the years I dabbled in various chat rooms and online forums. About two years ago I decided to take the plunge and engage in social media in a meaningful way. I signed up for an account on Twitter and decided that I would micro blog about anything related to nursing staff development. Within this venue I began to meet other nurses, educators, people in public relations, information technologist, managers, editors, and writers. I had to admit that this was an amazing way to share knowledge, events, and experiences that I found relevant to my practice and incredibly easy to do. In short, I was engaging in a cacophony of information from all parts of the world.

Over the next two years I found myself taking on more responsibilities. At work I was busily building online educational modules and managing both the nursing intranet and Internet educational websites for my institution. I had even experimented with different platforms for online Journal club including Facebook. I also took on the task of being the webmaster for my local Sigma Theta Tau International chapter while serving on the educational committee for another professional organization. For the first time in my career, I began submitting abstracts for national conferences, and they were even being accepted. Finally I decided that it was time to work on my own blog site. This is something that I had been putting off for quite some time because I knew that this was a responsibility and a commitment. During this time I had also received a full scholarship for an online distance learning program. This online program was time-consuming but I believed the endeavor added value to my experiences as a nurse educator as one of my professional goals was becoming a distance learning mentor for a nursing college.

Work was ramping up as my hospital began the process of converting to electronic health records. I became involved in this project while maintaining my online and other staff development job responsibilities. It was not my imagination that my real-life responsibilities were mounting. I was also as a TA in a distance learning informatics course. If that was not enough I had started a fiction book a year earlier and I was 340 pages in and with a chapter and a half left to complete it. Thank goodness my children are grown up otherwise I do not know where I would have found the time to do any of these things. In the social media realm, I continued networking with some amazing nurses and trying to work on a number of projects while continuing to blog and tweet. Despite juggling so many obligations I found that I was still able to deliver the goods until life recently threw me several unsettling curveballs in short order.

I underestimated the effects of overstretching myself that left little room for grieving or coping. I found that I was in overload and could not do another thing. I know that I am not the only person who has gotten herself into this situation. High achieving, high energy, type A personalities with a penchant for perfection, find  themselves running the risk of hitting the tipping point that ultimately leads to overload and burnout. The problem with this type behavior is that it does not leave any reserve for dealing with lifes inevitable tremors.  I needed some downtime.  I stopped blogging for a while and sporadically tweeted. This was not planned, it just happened. I knew I had to regain my footing. I stepped back for a while and decided to:

• Set my priorities while maintaining boundaries to restore a healthy balance in my life.
• Know my limitations
• Engage in the endeavors I enjoy
• Stop volunteering for  things that I do not have time to do or want to do
• Finish the projects that were started a while ago
• Carefully consider new requests that will impact on my time 
• Set time aside to re-energize myself 
• Reengage and and connect with others
• Recognize that I am human 

Making Crossword Puzzles for Nursing Education Using Excel 2007

I enjoy solving word games. Not too long ago, I used to create crossword puzzles by using graph paper. Excel offers a perfect platform for staging crossword puzzles because of the grids that are in place on each spreadsheet. Each box in the grid is adjustable in size in addition to other formatting features. Click here to try the "Nurse Educator Crossword Puzzle."
To make a crossword puzzle:

1. Make a list of words and their clues that you want to include in the puzzle 
2. Consider the number of boxes across and down based on the length of the longest words on the list
3. Highlight the area of the puzzle on the grids of the Excel sheet 
4. Format the size of the grid boxes by adjusting the headings on both the width and height to a size of 40 pixels
5. Start the puzzle in grid box B-2.  Leave the “A” column and the horizontal “1” line blank                                                                               
6. Begin placing one letter for each word in an individual grid box  
7. Fill any blank boxes by clicking the “Fill color” icon and click on black or your color preference
8. Optional: Add numbers by inserting a text box to the appropriate grid box 
9. Add the clues by clicking on the box with the first letter of a word.
• Right click and select "Insert Comment" from the drop down menu. (This idea I got from Internet 4 Classrooms site)
• Keyboard your clues in the comment box
10. Add a title and instructions
11. Remove the gridlines, headings, and formula bar by clicking on "View" and uncheck those three options.
12.  Save as an "Excel 97-2003 Template" for compatibility
13. Highlight the puzzle and delete the letters 
14.  By saving the puzzle as a template, the puzzle shape and clues can not be changed but the user can fill in the blank boxes

 Click Here for the printable version of the "Nurse Educator Crossword Puzzle."
The Internet 4 Classrooms site explains how to make an interactive Excel crossword puzzle. There are many free software offerings available on the web for making crosswords but I'll discuss them in another article!



References
Brooks, S. & Byles, B. (n.d.). Making an interactive crossword puzzle with Excel.     Retrieved from http://www.internet4classrooms.com/excel_puzzle.htm

Jumping through hoops

Research and publishing are two initiatives that staff development instructors are being asked to engage in. When does the educator find time in a busy day to sit down and consider a research project or an article for publication? Does the instructor know how to conceptualize, carry out a research project or know where to look for guidance in his or her institution?

I had the opportunity to participate in a formal performance improvement (PI) project where a colleague and I went through the procedure of preparing a proposal for the hospital Institutional Review Board (IRB). I was very fortunate to be directly working with a nurse who was quite familiar with the formal research process. Although this nurse and I are work colleagues and friends, in this arena I viewed her as a role model and a consultant.  Prior to submitting the application, I had to register, and successfully pass the online course, “ Protecting Human Research Participants.”  This course is an offering by the National Institute of Health.  I additionally had to take another test required by my health care system. The application had to delineate the purpose of the project, how it would be done, benefits, time frame, what we were measuring, in addition to our data collection tool. The application process gave me the opportunity to think about the project in clear and objective terms as well as organizational issues. Once we received the approval from the IRB, we carried out the project over many months.   

Upon conclusion of the project that had successful outcomes, we went to the next step that was to write a white paper. We reviewed several peer reviewed nursing journals and chose one that we believed was a good match for the project. We scoured through three pages of single-spaced author guidelines. Because we were submitting a paper based on a quality improvement project, we additionally had to adhere to the “The Squire Methodology.”  At the time, we had no idea what that was! After many hours of toiling on the paper, reviewing the Squire methodology, carefully following the instructions, and correctly formatting several photographs, diagrams, and graphs; we were ready to submit our paper.

We received a response from the journal after three months of waiting. Our paper was accompanied by five different reviewer ratings in addition to 25 comments for areas of revision. By this point we were happy that we did not receive a rejection notice but exhausted over the prospect of addressing each revision!  We decided to take a breather for the summer.  By the end of September, re-energized by the break, we finally resubmitted the revised paper. At this time we are anxiously awaiting the outcome!

For staff development instructors who possess little to no experience with research or publishing, find what supportive measures the institution is offering. This would include basic courses, programs or seminars on performing nursing research, consultation and advisement by an in-house research nurse, the medical librarian, writing for publication classes, and editorial support. Local colleges and universities may also offer such courses. Another way to gain experience is to consider working as part of a team on a project with other nurses/doctors experienced with the research process. These endeavors are time consuming. I feel fortunate as my health care system has made a sincere effort to provide support, training and time for the staff development instructor who wishes to engage in these activities.  


Follow-up: I am happy to announce that the article was accepted for publication! I now awaiting the actual publication.